On the team defense
Well, we got 10 stops out of 12 possessions the last part of the game. I had anticipated this a little bit. I hadn't anticipated Washington State being quite as good in terms of shooting the ball, but I thought there was the potential for us to be flat, and we were. I think these kids gave a great emotional effort on Thursday [against Washington] and I think Washington State is a good basketball team. They came back on us up there, down big, and outplayed us for a fair portion of the game. One technical foul, which cost them a win that they had. If they win the other night [against Stanford] they're right there with everybody else. They're a good basketball team. Ken's [Bone] done a good job. We let Klay Thompson get away from us and he's too good a player to do that. Coming off Thursday night, we had yesterday, and then a 1 o'clock game. So, we didn't do a lot. I didn't think physically we could do a lot. Maybe we didn't emphasize enough, but, we were back on our heels. Thompson just did a great job. He's really a good shooter, but we did a much better job in the second half. Everybody did a better job in the second half. We just got more aggressive.

On guarding Klay Thompson in the second half:
Well, you just guard him. You can't let him catch with room. We got screened in the first half. He was coming off screens and had room and when he gets room, he's a great shooter.

On how the team played overall:
Well, for learning some things, just in terms of how we have to play. You have to compete. It's always what happens. When we get back on our heels, we're just not very aggressive, offensively or defensively. In the second half, we only played six, pretty appreciable minutes, and those six guys did a pretty good job. I wanted to substitute. I kept thinking, `Maybe I need to get somebody out of here.' But, I thought that they seemed to be energized and I felt like they needed to stay in, so we stayed with the six guys. Jorge [Gutierrez] was very good, I thought. Usually, he's getting better as we go, getting more like we remember him being, as far as his presence on the court and his influence. Patrick [Christopher] in the second half was night and day and was aggressive, too. Jamal [Boykin] had a great weekend.

On having more steals than Washington State:
Well, it just goes back to getting after the ball a little bit. I really just felt like, in the first half, every loose ball went their way. There would be a ball that would drop and we'd go running down like we want to go play offense and nobody would get the ball. It was one of those deals, where, even if you look at the officiating, the calls went their way because we were not aggressive. We were reaching rather than getting where we were supposed to get. In the second half, we did go after the ball a little bit and got some steals and got out on the break. We got some stops and got easier shots because they did a good job defensively. They're pretty capable of switching across the board, 1-4. They did that and we didn't react very well to it.

Washington State Head Coach Ken Bone:

It was a great game and unfortunately it got away from us at the end.

The first three or four minutes of the second half was a struggle. California
stepped up the tempo and the physicality of the game. This is a very good ball club
and there is a reason they are in first place. They got very aggressive and I
thought our guys battled back after those first three minutes of the second half and
competed very well until that last three or four minute mark.

I thought our guys did a nice job on defense but unfortunately (Jerome) Randle hit
those four threes in the first half and as a team they hit 10 and shot it really
well. All in all, the score doesn't indicate it, but I thought our guys did a nice
job on the defensive end.

When Klay Thompson is hitting shots like that it just helps everything else.